Names in the News 3/3

Published 6:05 am, Friday, March 1, 2013

Two Midland representatives of Acme Brick have been honored with the President's Club Ring of Honor award.

Brent Keesee, manager of Acme's Midland sales office, and Grant Looney with the Midland office each received the award at the company's 28th annual "President's Club Ring of Honor" awards ceremony.

Since 1984, Acme Brick Company and its affiliated companies have honored individuals who achieve or exceed their annual sales goals. In 2012, 39 individuals throughout the Acme Brick system qualified for this special honor.

AT&T invests more than $7 billion in Texas

DALLAS - AT&T invested more than $7 billion in its Texas wireless and wireline networks from 2010 through 2012, with a focus on expanding 4G LTE mobile Internet coverage and enhancing the overall performance of its networks.

AT&T has made nearly 6,300 wireless network upgrades in six key categories in Texas during 2012, including activating new cell sites, adding capacity, upgrading cell sites to provide fast 4G LTE mobile Internet speeds, deploying high-capacity Ethernet connections to cell sites, and adding or upgrading Distributed Antenna Systems, which boost wireless coverage and capacity in buildings and at major venues like convention halls or sports arenas.

During that period, the company invested more than $25 million in Midland-area wireless and wireline networks, with a focus on expanding 4G mobile Internet coverage and enhancing the overall performance of its networks.

AT&T customers are benefitting from nearly 30 wireless network upgrades in six key categories in Midland during 2012.

"AT&T's investment of more than $25 million in network improvements here in Midland has given us the power to increase access to the Internet, thus broadening the possibilities for growth in areas such as health care and education. Moreover, AT&T is helping us to better connect with colleagues, friends and loved ones across the state and beyond," said Texas State Rep. Tom Craddick. "It's important to understand that common sense regulations are key to ensuring that investments like these continue to be possible in the future -- investments that we know will help drive growth in our community for years to come."

AT&T recently launched Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment initiative to expand and enhance its wireless and wireline IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to increase the density of its wireless network by deploying more than 10,000 macro sites, more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems, and more than 40,000 small cells. Through this initiative, AT&T also plans to expand 4G LTE to cover more than 300 million people by year-end 2014, expand the AT&T wired IP network to 57 million customer locations, covering 75 percent of customer locations in its wired service area by year-end 2015 and expand the AT&T fiber network to reach 1 million additional business locations by year-end 2015.